Friends to open restaurant at Stone Creek Cove

Val Lowe, left, and Katie Tillman, right, of Friends at the Cove are getting ready to open a new banquet facility in Stone Creek Cove on Providence Church Road in Anderson.

Name: Friends at the Cove

Address: 1500 Providence Church Road

Type of business: restaurant and catering

Number of employees: 6

Contact: Katie Tillman or Valerie Lowe (864) 231-0663

Katie Tillman and Valerie Lowe thought they were finished with the restaurant business when they closed Friends Food With A Flair in downtown Anderson. But the folks at Stone Creek Cove made the pair an offer they couldn't refuse.

Ms. Lowe laughed into the phone when a member of Stone Creek's homeowner's association asked if they would be interested in opening a restaurant at the golf club. But it only took one visit to the 1970s clubhouse before the women were hooked.

They plan to open Friends at the Cove as a banquet facility in December and will add a restaurant component after Jan. 1.

"Sometimes the universe just plops something in your lap and you say ‘Oh my God, what are we going to do with this?' " Ms. Lowe said, sitting in Friends' future banquet space.

Most people know Stone Creek Cove from its heyday during the 1980s. When the clubhouse's longtime manager left, the homeowners association hired one person after another, but it wasn't the same, so the association started leasing the building out for special events, said Wendy Mussen, the current homeowners association president.

Ms. Tillman and Ms. Lowe admittedly looked at the property out of curiosity more than business interest. They arrived by boat, stepping off Hartwell Lake and onto a rolling green lawn lined by trees. By the end of their tour, Ms. Tillman and Ms. Lowe were smitten with the building and the homeowners who were with them.

The clubhouse was designed with the best of 1970s style. Get past the currently turquoise carpet and yellow walls, and it's easy to see why this building was a happening social site.

Light fills the banquet room from sliding glass doors that make up one entire wall. Tables are arranged diagonally around a small parquet dance floor. Behind it, a stone fireplace dominates the wall and overlooks the pit where DJs would play music.

When homeowners association surveyed residents this year about their vision for the community, the majority of respondents wanted and agreed that they would support a restaurant in the clubhouse, said Judy Stevanovich, a homeowner's association board member.

Residents are doing a majority of renovations in order to get Friends there. The outside deck is being repainted, the front doors are wet with red paint, and the carpet is coming up soon.

"We've had various people in the restaurant out there," Mrs. Stevanovich said. "We just wanted to ensure that the next people that came into the restaurant were people with experience."

The dining room for the restaurant/bar will seat about 60 people. An adjacent loft has room for about 15 more and will likely be used for private parties. The banquet space can easily accommodate 250 people, using the dining room, deck and lawn.

The small kitchen inside can serve the restaurant, but the friends will use the mobile kitchen they bought for their catering business to help serve the banquet space. A new menu is in the works, and the women are surveying the residents and regular customers about what they want to eat.

"It'll be different than Friends downtown, but we'll have some of the old favorites," Ms. Lowe said.

Friends at the Cove will also employ some familiar faces. The women have already talked to former employees and their catering workers to fill positions at the new location.

Friends at the Cove gives Ms. Tillman the best of all worlds. The restaurant will open Thursday through Saturday so she gets to interact with customers, but on a smaller scale than the grueling five-day-a-week schedule they had downtown.

For Stone Creek Cover residents, the Friends will provide a sense of community and a place to gather, Mrs. Stevanovich said.

"We think it's going to be just wonderful for the community and the entire area," she said.